Archive for 'Lifestyle' Category

The “big” Silver Week for the first time in 6 years

The “Silver week”(continous public holidays of a couple of days in  September) of this year 2015 was of  5 straight public holydays , which was the longest one in over  past  six years. The new law of public holidays can make fluctuation  continuous or continual  holidays depending on situations each year and 2008 was the first longest silver week of 5 days since the legal changes. And after the one this year, the next longest week will come in 11 years from now in 2026 according to the calendar.

2009年、2015年
9月
日	月	火	水	木	金	土
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26

This year, the days of 19 th (Sat) -23rd (Wed.)  were all holidays ! And a lot of people enjoyed the “big” Silver Week. For example, the number of tourists to Kanazawa, where  the new Hokuriku Shinkansen (Bullte Trains)services started this March, and Ishikawa Pref. as a whole, and its  neighbouring prefectures of Toyama and Fukui, all of which are part of Hokuriku or  the North Central region, increased by 4 times compared to the number  of the same time last year.

Hokkaido Shinkansen’s grand opening next March

JR Hokkaido and JR East Japan jointly announced on Sep. 16 that  they were going to launch the remarkable new services of  the Hokkaido Shinkansen (The Bullet Train services in Hokkaido )  on March 26th 2016.

The hisotorically new services of the Hokkaido Shinkansen will provide totaly 13 round-trips of  “Hayabusa”and “Hayate” cars between Tokyo and Shin-hakodatehokuto (about 146km) on a daily basis.  10 out of them will be for the full distance and one for Sendai station-Shin-hakodatehokuto station, one for Morioka station- Shin-hakodatehokuto, and one for Shin-aomori station- Shin-hakodatehokuto station. The “E5 series” of JR East and the “H5 series” of JR Hokkaido will be used as the cars of the new lines.   The will include economy classes , Green Cars’ and the Grand-Place seats.

The 70th Peace Memorial Ceremonies at Hiroshima and Nagasaki

The 70th Peace Memorial Ceremonies were held at  Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima City,Hiroshima pref. on the Aug.6th  and  Nagasaki Peace Park in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Pref. on the Aug 9th. The two dates were the very dates the two atomic bombs were dropped at the two cities respectively just 70 years  ago. (http://www.city.hiroshima.lg.jp/www/contents/1342505253394/)

(http://www.city.nagasaki.lg.jp/heiwa/3020000/3020300/p002242.html)

PM Abe attended the two ceremonies and gave remakes wishing peace and keeping peaceful world. So did the city mayors. What was especially notable was that for the first time in history of these 70 years, a higher official of the US government along with the current US ambassador attended the ceremonies.  Rose Gottemoeller, Under-secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security , attended the ceremonies with US Ambassador Kennedy on behalf of the US government.

The two venues of the ceremonies including peace memorial museums, the Atomic Dome there are quite popular tourist destinations and a lot of people including foreign tourists visit everyday. Peace prevalence is,needless to say, essential to retaining and growing of tourism.

9,140,000, the record high number of foreign tourists to Japan in a half year

JNTO (http://www.jnto.go.jp/) announced  the number of foreign tourist to Japan of 9,140,000 in the first haf year of 2015 (Jan.-Jun.) marked the record high.

The number of 9,140,000 is a 46% increase compared to the number which had marked the record high at the same timing last year.  The number of Chinese tourists,who are of the top number, hasincrease by 2.2 times compared to the number last year at the same timing.   Shigeto Kubo, the Commissioner of Japan Tourism Agency gave comment that the total number of  foreign tourists to Japan in the end of this year 2015 would have reached about 18,000,000.

 

A Chinese luxury cruise ship arriving in Tottori

A Chinese first-rate big luxury cruise ship,”Mariner of the Sea” arrived in the port of Sakaiminato City,Tottori Prefecture on Jul.22.

About 3,400 Chinese tourists, who are  its passengers, visited the city and were taken to tourist destinations,such as Matsue Castle, landscape gardens, sourvenir shops, restaurants, and so forth in about 90 sightseeing buses.  They enjoyed sightseeing, shopping, eating and various activities and made  whirlwind and passionate situations.    

Summer plants examination fair for the Tokyo Olympics

An examination fair to rate and select excellent summer  plants was held at a metropolitan park in Koto ward  Tokyo on Jul.24. This fair was to choose good plants or flowers in respect  of beauty and perservarnce to survive in  vivacity in a hot mid summer time as a part of preparation for the upcoming Tokyo Olympic Games 2020.

About 200 types of plants were exhibited and examined, which had been grown by producing companies or horticulturists including cultivar improved ones.  The fair will have been held until September three times in total to decide excellent plants which are to decorate places around the Olympics venues and areas along the marathon courses in the big events in five years.

 

LAOX SHINJUKU Main Store Opening

Laox, a major home electric appliance tore chain opened a new store in Shinjuku, Tokyo on Jun.6th. (http://www.laox.co.jp/)(http://www.laox.co.jp/en/)

The new store is located on 3,4,and 5th floor of JTB Shinjuku Kyodo Building  near Shinjuku Station, which is the busiest commercial area in Tokyo. The store space is about 2140 ㎡ and the management expects mainly Chinese and Islamic tourists for huge shopping visits.

The store provides wide range of goods, such as PCs, TVs, watches, cosmetics, video games, goceries and so forth. The opening cerempony was held on the opening day and a famous Taiwanese actor, Lin Chi-ling  turned  up and did promotion of the new store, saying, Laox chain is a well-known and popular duty free and home electric appliance chain even in China. She showed  a Chinese character calligraphy, “美 ”（/beauty）.

Harima region’s 13 cities forming the Inbound Tourism Project Review Team

13 cities and  9 towns in the Harima region in Hyogo Pref. formed a wide-area cooperative conference and set up an inbound tourism project review team to launch various inbound tour projects. As I have written in my last post, Himeji area in the Harima region now enjoys huge popularity with tourists due to the re-disclosure of  Himeji Castle to public this spring, whole of the Harima region has been stimulated and energetically conducts broader inbound plans there. (http://www.harima-united.jp/)

The 13 cities, such as  Himeji, Kakogawa,Ako, and Akashi, and 6 towns, such as  Fukuzaki, Kamikawa, and Kamigoori started inbound tour plans in collaboration with related local businesses such as travel agents and bus companies. In such projects, they plan and implement monitoring tours, such as a tour to experience making abaci called “Banshu Soroban” which is a traditional craft of Ono City and to visit  Himeji Castle, or experiencing Zen meditations at a local Buddhist temple, tea ceremonies and Himeji Castle visit. Some American, British, Spanish, Canadian residents in those areas joined the tours and are all satisfied so much. The municipalities are now vigorously continuing the inbound projects to attract and receive much more foreign tourists to reinvigorate the local society.

Himeji Castle, 500,000 visitors after the rennovation

Himeji Castle, a world heritage site and known as the “Egret Castle” due to its white and beautiful appearance in Himeji, Hyogo pref.  celebrated the record of receiving 500,000 visitors on this May 10th since the resumption of its opening of the donjon to public after the huge rennovations in the Heisei era on this March 24.  Now the castle has become so popular andreceives more than 17,000 visitors a day and might renew the record high so soon with the rapidly increasing number of the vistors. (http://translate.city.himeji.lg.jp/LUCHIMEJI/ns/tl.cgi/http://www.city.himeji.lg.jp/guide/castle.html?SLANG=ja&TLANG=en&XMODE=0&XCHARSET=utf-8&XJSID=0)

 

Tokyo Governor announces launching “Omotenashi Tokyo”

Masuzoe Tokyo Governor hosted a regular press conference at the Tokyo metropolitan Government and announced the government launched a plan of volunteer city guide services called “Omotenashi Tokyo” to help foreign visitors to Tokyo as a part of special services in preparation for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics in 2020 on this May 29th. (http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/ENGLISH/index.htm)

Masuzoe also introduced and showed the blue uniform of  Omotenashi Tokyo, the volunteer city guide groups.  He told he had impressed by the Korean volunteer guides’ warm services he had received during his stay in Soul, Korea. The Korean volunteer guides wore red uniforms and now he has chosen “blue” ones for the Tokyo guide groups, expressing the similar hospitality of the volunteer guides.  He says  he expects the new system’s volunteer guides will be a good help speaking foreign laungages for foreign tourists to Tokyo.   Omotenashi Tokyo will start its services on Jun. 19 at Shinjuku station West Exit area and area of Ueno station, with about 1,000 enrolled member guides who are housewives, students and others that meet conditions such as a ceratain English proficiency. The services hours are 11:00-17:00 on Friday,Saturday,and Sunday and services will expand to 10 venue areas withen 5 years.

Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution recommeded as a World Heritage Site

ICOMOS, the official advisory panel of UNESCO, reccommeded some sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial revolution as a world heritage site to UNESCO on this May 4th.  (http://whc.unesco.org/)

The recommended candidate consists of 23 facilities in 8 prefecturessuch as nagasaki and Fukuoka, mainly southwestern parts in Japan in total. They all represent the rapidly developped processes of the heavy industry at the turning point of Japan from the pre-modern to the modern society about 150 years ago in the Meiji era, explains the japanese government. For example,  Gunkan jima island in Nagasaki pref. which worked as a plant island including schools, residents of factory workers and their families as if  it were an independent city on the sea 40~50 years ago is one of those symbolic facilities. Now those   places and areas are so popular and not only Japanese but  foreigners visit to know about Japanese historical and societal changes.  The candidate will be on the item list and examned at the upcoming UNESCO committee at Bon Germany Jun.28-Jul.8.

Meat Festival in Tokyo 2015 Spring

The second “Niku- Fesu”(/Meat Festival) in Tokyo is being held April 24-29, May 1-6 at Komazawa Park and May 1-10 at Toyosuna Park in front of AEON Mall Makuhari. (http://nikufes.jp/)

At the two venues in Komazawa Park and Toyosuna Park, various meat dishes from all over the world are introduced,promoted, and sold. A lot of shops are there and supported by world’s embassies and other associations which could be a “meat world expo”. the host Food Nation has a purpose of promoting cultures through foods and started the meat festival last year, which was so successful with 290,000 and 420,000 visitors to the events.  Visitors can enjoy variety of meat dishes and enjoy food cultures of the world.

The first Tokyo My Matsuri at Ueno park

The first Tokyo My Matsuri was held April.25-26 at Ueno park, which is quite famous as one of the best sites to appreciate beautiful cherryblossoms in spring in Tokyo. (http://tokyo-dance.jp/yousu)

This was a dancing festival and competitions of children’ dance teams supported by educational organizations and local commericial associations. About 50 teams joined the event and two teams of “SAKADO WINDS” and “dancecompanyREIKA組” won grandprix.  I wass there on the 26th and ate some food at  stall shops in the venue, The atmosphere there was quite lively and a lot of people were enjoying the festival. The second Matsuri is going to be held in Shinjuku on Oct.3-4.

Foreign visitors to Japan Record high in March

The monthly number of foreigners visiting Japan achieved the record high in this March, reported JNTO(Japan National Tourist Organization) on April 22nd.  The number reached as many as 1,526,000 which marked a  45 % increase of  the number of  the same month last year. The March’es number also prevailed the number of  last month which was 1,380,000 and maked the record high which was also the first time to mark a number over 1.5 million.

 

The sources of this drastic increase are said to be the weak yen, relaxed visas systems, expanding scopes of  duty free items, and so forth. The no.1 nationality to have come to Japan is Chinese (338,000, ＋83.7%), No.2 is Taiwanese(278,000, ＋33.2% ）, and No.3 is Korean(268,200, ＋39.6%). The monthly numbers of visitors from HongKong, Vietnam,US,Canada,UK,and Germany  recorded high as of one month respectively.

Hokuriku Shinkansen finally launched operation on Mar.14th

Hokuriku Shinkansen (The North-central Bullet Trains ) grand opened its full service (Tokyo-Kanazawa)on this Mar.14th. (http://hokuriku-w7.com/about/)

Hokuriku Bullet Trains started  its operation partially just between  Takasaki and Nagano in 1997 and  Tokyo-Takasaki (Tohoku Shinkansen) and Takasaki-Nagano(Nagano Shinkansen) became  a part of Hokuriku so that the line Toky0-Nagano began as “Nagano Shinkansen”, which is a part of the planned total line of  Hokuriku line.  However, this time Takasaki-Joetsumyoukou-Kanazawa line opened on the 14th and the “full line”(Takasaki-Kanazawa 117 km plus  the existant Tokyo-Takasaki line). Another bullet train line between Kanazawa and Atsuga is also planned to be opened in 2023 to be a part of the Hokuriku line.

Now due to the launch of the new line, it has come to take only 2 hours and half  ,while it used to take  about 4 hours including  transferrings.  Since this new convenience of  shortening time,  Kanazawa, which is the capital of Ishikawa Pref, and is a traditional city of  traditional cultures and history, now is even more popular among tourists.  To tell the truth, I used this new Hokuriku Bullet Train line from Tokyo to Kanazawa just  one week  after its grand opening. The new Shinkansen “Kagayaki”(/ a Shine)  was quite comfortable and other passengers seemed so happy and enjoying the trip as well.   Though I had been to Kanazawa many times, this time visiting the city by Hokuriku Shinkansen was a fresh and exciting experience.  Kanazawa is full of attractions with historical sites and tangible and intangible cultural things, such as Kenrokuen garden, The 21 Century Museum, gold leaves, Wajima-nuri, Kutani-yaki porceline ,and others and  seemed quite lively and full of energy with the new attentions by the sightseers or visitors. I hope  the attractions there will be recognized even more and more popular.